namea word or group of words used to refer to an individual entity (real or imaginary). A name singles out the entity by directly pointing to it, not by specifying it as a member of a class.

It is possible to refer to the same entity, for example, a river, in two distinct ways: (1) “The Colorado is a beautiful river,” and (2) “The river that flows through Austin is beautiful.” Because there is only one river that flows through Austin, Texas, the subject of sentence 2 is unambiguously identified, and the reference of the sentence is fully individual. The subject of sentence 2, however, is not a name but rather a nominal (noun) phrase that specifies one member of the whole class of rivers by indicating a unique property of it. The word Colorado in sentence 1, on the other hand, is a name, because it directly points to the specific river. The fact that there is more than one river called Colorado, and that more specific information is sometimes needed to identify the one being discussed (e.g., “I prefer the Texan Colorado to the California one”), does not change the status of “Colorado” as a name, because each of the two rivers is referred to in the way required by the definition.

Names and appellatives

A general appellative (i.e., a common noun) capable of being used in reference to a whole class of entities can also be used with an individual reference. For instance, if an inhabitant of Austin, Texas, says, “Let’s go swimming today, not in the pool but in the river,” there is no doubt that the word river has a unique, individual reference to one single river, namely, the Colorado. This fact, however, does not make a name out of it; “river” is here a common noun, but its reference is specified by the extralinguistic context of the situation in which the sentence was said. Some names seem to belong more to the category of appellatives than to the category of names like Colorado in “the Colorado River.” For example, names like Big River, Red River, Stony Brook, and Cedar Hill may have their origin in a specific use of a general noun. If a sentence like “After five days of marching, we had to cross a river, the big one, not one of the smaller ones” is used very often, the name Big River may result. Such names are more frequently given as directly descriptive names. The similarity of names of this type with expressions like those exemplified in sentence 2 above is deceptive. There is, after all, more than one big river, so that the specification “the big river” is not complete. The full identification of one single river as the reference is given by the context. Therefore, apart from certain special expressions (like “the big one, not one of the smaller ones”), names like Big River, Red River, and so on have the same status as names like Colorado.

In some languages, a name is differentiated from an appellative (common noun) by formal means. The difference is sometimes indicated by the script; e.g., languages using alphabets such as the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Armenian, and Georgian use a capital letter at the beginning of a name. (But, on the contrary, in German all nouns, not only names, are written with an initial capital.) There are examples of a purely grammatical differentiation of names as well, such as the usual absence of the articles “a” or “an” in English; e.g., “Yesterday I saw an archer practicing his art” and “Yesterday I saw (Bill) Archer practicing his art.”

The distinction between names and appellatives (common nouns) is generally clear: names are used in individual reference, appellatives can be used in reference to all members of a class or to any number of them (e.g., river, hill, man, girl, car, table, virtue, and so on). Nevertheless, there are some borderline cases. For instance, a nation can be conceived as an individualized entity, so that “Americans,” “Englishmen,” and “Spaniards” are names; on the other hand, it is clear that other groups of people are not conceived in this way, so that expressions like “soldiers,” “sailors,” and “clergy” are not names. It is difficult to decide on the status of expressions like the “Baptists,” “Adventists,” and “spiritists.” In a similar way, if all vehicles produced by Henry Ford are Fords and if one can buy an individual Ford as well, is “Ford” a name? It probably is, or approaches that status; but names of this type frequently lose the character of names and develop into common nouns. Expressions like “the Roman Catholic Church,” “the Ministry of Education” (of a specific state) also have a dubious position as to their status as real names. The uncertainty in this respect is indicated by the vacillation in the use of capital letters in various languages. This overlapping has a long history and is reflected in modern terminology. The Greeks used the term noun (onoma) for both the common noun and the name; when they wished to make a distinction, they specified the name as a proper noun (onoma kyrion). It is in this tradition that the term proper noun, or proper name, is used for a name, and noun, general noun, or common noun, for an appellative.

The science of onomastics

Categories of names

The science that studies names in all their aspects is called onomastics (or onomatology—an obsolete word). The subject of this science is broad because almost everything can have a name and because the study of names theoretically encompasses all languages, all geographical and cultural regions, and all historical epochs. For practical purposes, some divisions of the subject are necessary; e.g., by language (as the study of Kiowa or Provençal names) or by geographical, historical, or similar partitions (the study of the names in India, of the Levant at the time of the Crusades, and so forth). Another division (usually combined with the preceding ones) is given by the character of the names themselves; in a very broad categorization, names of persons, or personal names, are discerned on the one hand, and names of places, or place-names, on the other. In the most precise terminology, a set of personal names is called anthroponymy and their study is called anthroponomastics. A set of place-names is called toponymy, and their study is called toponomastics. In a looser usage, however, the term onomastics is used for personal names and their study, and the term toponymy is used for place-names and their study. The term toponymy itself can be understood in two ways, even in the exact terminology: either it is taken in the broadest possible way as including inhabited places, buildings, roads, countries, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, stars, and so on, or it is restricted to inhabited places (cities, towns, villages, hamlets). If the latter alternative is the understanding of the term toponymy, then the uninhabited places (e.g., fields, small parts of forests) are called microtoponymy; names of streets, roads, and the like are called hodonymy; names of bodies of water, hydronymy; names of mountains, oronymy. Additional terms are not generally used (though one occasionally hears words like chrematonymy—names of things).

In any case, different categories of names frequently must be studied together, because there are transitions. For instance, many place-names are derived from personal names (e.g., Washington), many names of planets and stars are derived from the names of mythological characters (e.g., Venus, Mars, Alpha Centauri), and many personal names are derived from place-names, names of nations, and other such names (e.g., Austerlitz, Napoleon’s battlefield; French; Scott). There is also a division of names into primary and secondary ones. Neptune is primarily the name of a Roman god; transferred to the name of a planet, it is a secondary name.

Forms of personal names

There are many subdivisions and terms within the category of personal names. Originally, one name was given to a person at an early period of life—in Europe (and later in America), normally at Baptism. This is called either simply the name, the baptismal or Christian name, or the forename; in the United States and Canada it is usually called the first or given name. Because many people received the same name (given name), they were differentiated by surnames (for example, John Redhead, John Hunter, John Scott). Many of these surnames became fixed and hereditary in individual families. These are called either surnames or family names, and in the United States and Canada they are frequently known as last names. Thus the basic pattern is given name + family name, together called the name or the personal name. There are exceptions concerning this sequence. Among the Chinese and Hungarians, for example, the family name precedes the given name: Mao Tse-tungZedong, Nagy István. The Hungarians usually switch the order when they write English; thus, Nagy István becomes István (or Stephen) Nagy. The Chinese, however, maintain the order of family name first.

There are variations in the basic pattern. In the United States and Canada the usual practice is to insert another name (frequently expressed in writing only by the initial letter) between the given and the family name. This is the second, or middle, name. It may be the original family name of a married woman inserted between her first name and the last name of her husband, the maiden name of one’s mother, as well as other names. In Europe, such a second name is less common and is usually acquired at Baptism (or, eventually, at Confirmation). In most European countries, the first baptismal name is the important one, and the second one (third, and so forth) can be omitted. In German usage, however, the baptismal name immediately preceding the family name is the most important one. For example, if one of the baptismal names in Johann Sebastian Bach or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is to be omitted, it would be Johann. (But in a sequence like Johann Nepomucenus Nestroy, the shorter form is Johann Nestroy, because Nepomucenus is only an attribute discerning one of the numerous saints who had the name Johann.) British usage varies in this respect, but sometimes follows the German pattern—e.g., W. Sidney Allen.

In a few areas, particularly among East Slavs, the so-called patronymic (i.e., a name derived from the given name of the father) is inserted between the given and the family name. In Russian, if the father’s name is Ivan Krylov, then the son’s name, for example, will be Pyotr (given) Ivanovich (patronymic) Krylov (family), and the daughter’s name will be, for example, Varvara Ivanovna Krylova. The usual form of address in Russian—among acquaintances, neighbours, colleagues at work, and inclusive superiors—is by the given name and the patronymic. In Iceland the given name is used with the patronymic, the use of family names being discouraged. In Spain the family name of an individual consists of the family names of father and mother, the first being the most important one.

The terms maiden name and girl’s name are sometimes used for the original family name of a married woman. Nickname is used in reference to surnames (which have not developed into family names), mainly of the jocose type—e.g., a thickish Mr. John Smith is might be called Fatty. A surname, also called a byname or to-name (obsolete), can be used to differentiate persons with the same family names if they belong to different families and if given names are not used among them. In a village, there may be several families with the name Jones; if they are not called or referred to by first names, they may be known as Jones at the Pond, Jones the Redhead, and so forth. Hypocoristic forms of names are those that are used in familiar, friendly, or intimate situations (usually shortened or otherwise modified)—e.g., Tom for Thomas, Jim for James. Some of these forms are also used as given names, particularly in the United States.

The naming process

One of the most important elements of the naming process concerns the meaning and associations of the name. In this case the term meaning is radically different from that in the case of common nouns, in which the “meaning” is their ability to be used in reference to a class of entities, to denote or designate them. As was noted above, the absence of this ability to refer to a class of entities is typical of a name. If the meaning of a typical common noun, such as automobile, is considered, it can be seen that it denotes a certain type of vehicle. On the other hand, if the word automobile itself is considered, one can see that it consists of a Greek element, auto “self,” and a Latin one, mobilis “movable,” so that the sum of the meanings of the constituent parts of the word suggests a gloss like “self-movable,” “self-mover.” The meaning of a name involves that which the constituent parts suggest. In this sense, the meaning of a name like Red River is obvious. To get a meaning of a name like Philip, however, one must go back to its original Greek version, Philippos, which means “lover of horses.” This meaning of names frequently gets lost, however. There are several causes for this, one being that the name may be accepted into another language, as were the Indian place-names in America (e.g., Oshkosh, Chicago, Kankakee), and the Greek and other names transferred to Europe and America via Christianity. In addition, names may cease to be understood as a result of language change; e.g., the place-name Birmingham was understandable in Old English as “habitation of Biorma’s people,” and the originally Germanic name Gerard was once understood as “strong spear” (Ger-hardo). Names also changed by shortening (e.g., Los Angeles, from El Pueblo de la Reyna de los Angeles, “Town of the Queen of the Angels,” the town named in honour of the Virgin Mary) and by scribal error (e.g., Pria in France, a misread medieval abbreviation of Pradaria, “meadow”). Another cause of the loss of meaning in names is that the meaning simply fades out by constant use of the word as a name. No one thinks of the meaning “ford for oxen” when speaking about Oxford, and no one realizes a discrepancy if Mr. White has a dark complexion. Finally, it sometimes happens that a name has no particular meaning from the beginning. For instance, the place-name Tonolo and the family name Bréal were created from random sequences of sounds.

Choice of personal names

Names that have no meaning (above all not for the person who chooses the name) still can have associations. Although “Mary” and “John” may have no specific meaning, they were the names of important persons in the Christian religion and therefore have been used very frequently. An association may be so strong that it overwhelms the meaning of a name, even a disagreeable meaning; e.g., the association with the cult of St. Demetrios made the name Demetrios one of the most popular in the Greek Orthodox Church, though its meaning is “belonging to [the pagan goddess] Demeter.” On the other hand, such an association may more or less completely fade out and be combined with or replaced by other associations, such as a national tradition (Patrick in Ireland, Yves in Brittany, István in Hungary, Ivan in Russia) or with a family tradition (Louis in the Bourbon family, Wilhelm among the Hohenzollerns, Henry in the Ford family). On a less elevated level, there is the example of a rich uncle making a given name more than eligible. A name can be associated, correctly or not, with various prestige factors, or its choice may be influenced simply by fashion. Another source of names, often extraordinary ones, was the occasional habit in Roman Catholic countries of giving a child the name of the patron saint whose day of celebration coincides with the child’s day of birth (or Baptism); many names like Hyacinthus X, or Narcissus Y, were produced in this way.

In the majority of cases, children are given “good,” likable, and propitious names. In some cultures (e.g., in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, formerly in China, and sporadically in ancient Greece), however, the children are (or were) sometimes given “bad” names with meanings like “ugly,” “disagreeable,” or “crippled.” The purpose of such names, which are called apotropaic names, is to make the child undesirable to demons.

The choosing of a given name is a highly private and individual matter. All the circumstances just mentioned can be motives for the choice, in addition to many other personal reasons, such as a consideration for the relatives’ names or a simple liking of the phonetic shape of a given name. This wish to give a likable name may go so far that a sequence of sounds is chosen that sounds pleasant to the person who makes the choice but that has no relation to the existing stock of names or to the words of the language; e.g., “Golly” was invented as a name of a girl and has no “meaning” or associations. This phenomenon is relatively common in the United States.

Choice of place-names

Place-names are less personal, less intimate, and a matter of public concern. The usual pattern is that the national Ministry of the Interior (or its equivalent) keeps an official list of place-names, particularly of place-names that form administrative units, together with lists of districts, counties, and the like. This function may also be performed by the ministry or agency that supervises the postal service. Bodies endowed with authority provide or choose new place-names if there is a need to create them on a greater scale—e.g., the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

International cooperation (performed above all by the Universal Postal Union) is necessary because names of identical places may vary from language to language. Particularly difficult are place-names originally written in scripts other than the Latin (Roman) one (the official script of the Universal Postal Union), such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, and the Indic writing systems. But, even within the Latin script, there are two basic types of difficulties. First, one place can have different names (or modifications of a name) in various languages—e.g., French Nice and Italian Nizza; German München, English and French Munich, and Italian Monaco. A very difficult situation arises when a place is generally better known by its international name than by its original one; e.g., Dublin is Baile Átha Cliath in Irish. Confusion may also be caused by names that are translated; e.g., the Rocky Mountains are in German Felsengebirge and in Russian Skalistye Gory. There are also names with the same written form but with varying pronunciations; e.g., for Paris, the accent, pronunciation of vowels, and pronunciation of consonants change from French to German to English.

The second difficulty involves the actual printing of all the letters with diacritical marks that are necessary for different alphabets of the Latin script. Because many printing firms lack the various marks, some possibly confusing omissions or modifications can hardly be avoided; e.g., the dot over the I in Turkish İstanbul and the bar through the l in Polish Kołobrzeg are frequently omitted. International cooperation is also necessary and is developing in connection with the choice of place-names in outer space, particularly on the surface of the Moon.

Historical and cross-cultural development of names

Legal aspects of naming

While place-names are considered a public matter, personal names also seem to be getting more regimented by various laws and regulations. The United Kingdom and the United States are practically the only countries that adhere to the principle of Roman law that a person has the right to use and change his name as he pleases, except for fraudulent purposes. The first important regulation concerning given names was the decision of the Council of Trent (1563), which specified that the Roman Catholic priest administering Baptism should make certain that children are given names of Catholic saints; if the parents were to insist on another name, the priest should administer Baptism in that name but add the name of a saint as the second baptismal name. This regulation, still a valid part of Canon Law, was directed against the Protestant custom (spreading at that time) of giving children names of important persons from the Old Testament otherwise unconnected with Christianity (e.g., Abraham, Samuel, Rachel). In this respect the regulation was successful in Catholic countries, but it did not succeed in stopping the use of given (baptismal) names like Cesare in Italy (from Latin Caesar).

The next important law was passed in France. The French Revolution first gave complete freedom in naming; the result was some very fanciful given names like Mort aux Aristocrates, Racine de la Liberté, or even Café Billard. To stop this, a law was passed in 1803 that restricted given names to “names of persons known from ancient history” and “names used in various calendars.” Again, the law was successful in its main intention; in addition, it prevented the spread of controversial given names such as Marat and Robespierre and of literary names such as Aramis, d’Artagnan, and Romeo. Very reasonably, the law never was interpreted too narrowly, so that feminine given names such as Jeanette and Henriette, for example, have been admitted, though they were not legal because no calendar contains them. This law is still valid in France.

Similar laws were passed, at various times, in eastern European countries and in certain neighbouring central Asian states, where the given name can be chosen only from names known and established as such, the exact formulation varying from country to country. One of the results of this legislation is that the repertoire of Russian given names today is more or less exactly the same as that of the pre-Soviet period, when the Orthodox Church was paramount. Catholic names are commonplace in Lithuania, whereas Muslim and other names are used in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, sometimes without any ecclesiastical association whatsoever. In the Caucasus there are given names such as Soslan and Dzerassa, drawn from Caucasian mythology.

In regard to family names, the most important regulation was made at the Council of Trent (1563); it was decreed that every parish must keep complete registers of Baptisms, with the names of the child and those of his parents and grandparents. This had been done before but not so systematically. The new practice (soon followed in Protestant parishes) helped to establish the family names. There is not much legislation concerning family names, because two basic assumptions are made: that the bride will accept the bridegroom’s family name by marriage and that their children will automatically have the family name of the parents.

Combined names—as under the German law permitting the bride to add her original family name to her new one in a hyphenated form (Inka Schmidt, when married to Karl Neumann, may become Inka Neumann-Schmidt) or the practice in outstanding British families of combining the family names of the married couple in a hyphenated form (Beatrix Curzon and Frederic Cholmondeley become Beatrix and Frederic Cholmondeley-Curzon)—are rare.

In the majority of cases, the law is concerned with family names mainly in cases of divorce, adoption, and illegitimacy. After a divorce, the wife is usually eventually allowed to reassume her maiden name and in Germany, for example, can be forced to do so if she is judged to be the guilty party and her former husband so desires. In adoption procedures, either the family name of the adopting persons is accepted or a hyphenated form is created. A child born out of wedlock usually receives the family name of its mother.

In many parts of Europe, legislation or habit have changed the basic assumptions concerning the family name, and a different situation has developed. When a Czech woman, Anna Klímová, for example, marries a Josef Novák, both may retain their original family names, or the wife may become Anna Nováková or, more remarkably, the husband may become Josef Klíma, accepting the wife’s family name. This must be decided by mutual agreement, and their children’s names also are agreed upon in this way. The purported reason for this legislation is the full equality of women. (There is, however, one loophole in the system, namely, the Russian patronymic: this is automatically derived from the father’s name, whereas equality understood in this way would demand a choice between the father’s or the mother’s name.) In Spain the married woman normally retains her maiden name.

Personal names

European patterns of naming

The development of personal names was complicated. In the old Indo-European system, a person had one name, which could be one of two types: a compound or a noncompound substantive. Noncompound names may originally have been given to inferior members of the tribe and their children. The compound names frequently associated the bearer with a god (they are called theophoric names) or attested to his virtues, abilities, skills, possessions, and so forth. The association of the meanings of the parts of the compound was sometimes only loose, as is particularly observable in German anthroponymy (see below). Examples of compound names include the Sanskrit Viṣṇuputra “son of Vishnu,” Devadatta “given by god,” Devarāja “god-king.” From Iran come the Avestan name Hōrmizāfrīd “benediction of Ahura Mazdā” and the Old Persian name Mithradates “given by Mithra” (two Iranian gods).

Among Greek names there are also many theophoric names, such as Herodotos “given by Hera,” Isidoros “given by Isis” (modern Isidore), or Theodoros (modern Theodore) and Dorotheos (modern only in the feminine form, Dorothy), both “given by god.” There are many other similar Greek names; e.g., Astyanax “lord of the city,” Pericles “very famous,” and Demosthenes “strength of the people.” Plato “broad (in shoulders)” is a noncompound Greek name.

The Latin system of personal names was quite different and probably developed under Etruscan influence. In the earliest times the Romans seemingly had only one name; e.g., Romulus, Remus, Manius. From the beginning of historical times, however, the Roman personal name consisted of a praenomen (given name, forename) and a nomen (or nomen gentile). Only intimates used the praenomen, and its choice was restricted to fewer than 20 names, among them Gaius, Gnaeus, Marcus, Quintus, Publius, Tiberius, and Titus. The nomen that followed was hereditary in each gens (a related group of families, like the Scottish clan); examples include Antonius, Aurelius, Claudius, Cornelius, Fabius, Horatius, Julius, Lucius, Maccius, Tullius, and some others. Because the choice of both the praenomen and the nomen was restricted, the patrician families and later all families started using a hereditary name, called a cognomen.

These cognomina developed from original surnames; e.g., Cicero “bean,” Pictor “painter,” Plautus “flat foot,” Tacitus “silent.” Thus the Roman name eventually consisted of three parts: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Gaius Julius Caesar. In addition, a person might acquire an individual surname, called an agnomen: Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was so named because of his successful war in Africa.

This system of naming was used during the whole republican period and later in the empire. Toward the end of the empire, however, the naming pattern began to change and subsequently was lost. One reason was that more persons used names lacking any real relation to themselves. For instance, a slave (and then his children) used the praenomen and the nomen of the master who set him free; e.g., had Marcus Tullius Cicero freed a Syrian slave, the name of the latter might have been Marcus Tullius Syrus.

The number of freed slaves grew constantly, particularly after the victory of the Christian religion. Also, a free inhabitant of the empire who was granted Roman citizenship acquired the praenomen and nomen of the magistrate who made him a citizen, and in AD 212, when all free noncitizens were given citizenship by the emperor Caracalla, hundreds of thousands of persons prefixed Marcus Aurelius to their names, whether Greek, Syrian, African, or any other. In this way, Roman names lost their significance.

Christian names

Another change was introduced by the Christians, who belonged to social classes that were not particularly concerned with the habits of the Roman higher class and who preferred names connected with their own religion; e.g., from its founders (Petrus, Paulus, Joannes, Maria, Timotheus) or from the new martyrs, frequently persons with simple Latin or Greek surname-like names such as Stephanos “wreath” (modern Stephen), Laurentius “laurel” (modern Lawrence), and Sidonius “coming from Sidon [in Phoenicia]” (modern Sidney). Simple names like these were sometimes called signum. The Christians, however, soon started creating their own names; e.g., Benedictus “blessed,” Desiderius “desiring [salvation],” Renatus “reborn [by Baptism],” (modern René).

With the spread of Christianity, this stock of names spread into territories that did not belong to the Roman Empire, but the diffusion was slow. In both the Germanic and the Slavic sphere (half of which came under the influence of the Eastern Church), the use of many of the original non-Christian names was continued, partly by tradition and partly because some of the bearers of these names became saints themselves. In this way, the repertory of given names was set, in general, somewhere around the 12th century. A notable addition to it was the influx of Old Testament names brought by the Reformation (Adlai, Benjamin, and so on). Certain names have left no trace of their ephemeral existence—e.g., Puritan names such as Humility, Be Faithful, Kill Sin; French revolutionary names; and Russian postrevolutionary names such as Mels (an acronym containing the initial letters of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin). American fanciful given names for girls, such as Claretta, Elizene, Gwyned, and Marilla, are also relatively insignificant in impact, though the group is growing.

Family names

Family names came into use in the later Middle Ages (beginning roughly in the 11th century); the process was completed by the end of the 16th century. The use of family names seems to have originated in aristocratic families and in big cities, where they developed from original individual surnames when the latter became hereditary. Whereas a surname varies from father to son, and can even be changed within the life span of a person, a hereditary surname that develops into a family name better preserves the continuation of the family, be it for prestige or for the easier handling of official property records and other matters. Family names frequently developed (via surnames) from hypocoristic forms of given names; e.g., from Henry came Harry, Harris, Hal, Halkin; from Gilbert came Gibbs, Gibbons, Gibbin, Gipps, Gilbye, Gilpin; and from Gregory there developed Gregg, Grigg, Greggs, Griggs, Greig. Other sources of family names are original nicknames—Biggs, Little, Grant (grand, large), Greathead, Cruikshank, Beaver, Hogg, Partridge; occupations—Archer, Clark, Clerk, Clarkson (son of a clerk), Bond, Bonds, Bound, Bundy (bondman); and place-names—Wallace (man from Wales), Allington, Murray, Hardes, Whitney (places in England), Fields, Holmes, Brookes, Woods (from microtoponyms).

A great number of family names come from patronymic surnames; in English, they are usually formed by the suffixation of “-son.” Patronymic surnames can be formed from the father’s given name or from any of its variants. Therefore, there is not only the form Richardson, but also Dickson, Dixon, Dickinson; and Henryson, Harrison, Henderson; Gilbertson, Gibson; and Gregson, Grigson. Some English patronymics, particularly in old families, are formed with a prefixed “Fitz-” (e.g., Fitzgerald), which goes back to Norman French fis “son.” In contradistinction to English, the Scottish patronymics are formed by a prefixed “Mac” or “Mc” (McGregor), the Irish with “O” (O’Brien) or “Mc” or “Mac,” and the Welsh with “P-” (Powell “son of Howel”). In Modern Greek, patronymics are formed by suffixation; e.g., Dimitriopoulos “son of Dimitrios.”

The development of family names is similar in all of Europe. For example, French names such as Jaquet, Jacquot, Jacotot, Jacotin, Cottet, Cottin, Cotin, Jacquin, Jacquinet, Jacquinot, Jacquart, Jacquier all derive from Jacques; Davignon, Decaen, Derennes, and Beauvais developed from the place-names Avignon, Caen, and so forth; Breton, Lebreton, Lenormand come from the names of districts; Clerk, Leclerc, Duclerc, Auclerk, Clergue (cf. English Clark), Boucher, Boulanger, Masson designate professions (“butcher,” “baker,” “mason”); and Roux, Leroux, Roussel, Rousseau, Lerouge, Roujon are all variants of “red” (i.e., red hair). Roughly the same scheme exists everywhere in Europe. Some family names can be traced to nicknames that must have their origin in incidents and attitudes that cannot be understood now; e.g., Czech family names such as Nejezchleba “Don’t eat bread!” and Skočdopole “Jump into the field!”

The development is slighty slightly different among Jews. While living in ghettos, they used only given names. After the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, they chose or were given family names. Many of these names (which vary in the individual languages) are derived from religious vocations: Cantor, Canterini, Kantorowicz (lower priest); Kohn, Cohen, Cahen, Kaan, Kahane (priest); Levi, Halévy, Löwy (name of the tribe of priests). Many are derived from place-names—Morpurgo (Marburg)—or from nicknames—Hirsch (“deer” in German). Frequently, particularly in Austria, the Jews were given derisory family names, such as Eberstark “strong as boar,” Rosenduft “fragrance of roses,” and Hitzig “hot,” from Itzick, a mocking form of Isaac.

The only outstanding exception to this European pattern of naming occurs with the names of kings, who use one of their given names. Some royal families have what could be called family names; e.g., the Hohenzollerns (more correctly, Hohenzollers) of Prussia. The British royal family accepted the name Windsor only in 1917 (this was changed to Mountbatten-Windsor for the future members of the family who will not enjoy princely status). The pope of the Roman Catholic Church abandons his personal name after his election and chooses a single name, sometimes associated with his intentions; e.g., Pope Paul VI chose the name Paulus because of St. Paul’s missionary activities and travels.

Other patterns of naming

Names and naming practices in other cultural areas show a strong similarity in the basic trends. Among the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian names are theophoric designations such as Ashurbanipal, meaning “Ashur [a god] created son,” and Nabukudurriusur (Nebuchadrezzar of the Bible), translated as “Nabu [a god] protected the estate.” The Phoenician (Carthaginian) name Hannibal means “grace of Baal” (a god). The Hebrew Yehonatan, Yonatan (i.e., Jonathan) means “God gave”; Rafaʾel (Rafael) is translated as “God cured.” There are also nontheophoric names such as Laban (from Hebrew lavan “white”). The Aramaic surname of the fisherman Simon, Kepha, meaning “stone,” became famous in the New Testament as Petros (Peter), the Greek translation of the name (petra “rock, stone”).

The more complicated structure of Arabic society brought an independent development similar to the European one. Given names such as Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm (= Abraham), Maṇsur “victor,” ʿAli “exalted,” ʿAbd Allāh “slave of Allāh” are differentiated by surnames such as Ibn ʿAbbās “son of ʿAbbās,” al-Baghdādī “from Baghdad,” al-Ghazālī “the spinner.” The Caucasian (e.g., Ossetic) personal name consists of a given name preceded by the name of the tribe (gens) in the genitive plural; the name of the father may be inserted, thus giving Gaglojty Soslany fyrt Nafi “Nafi, son of Soslan, of [the gens of] Gaglo.” Chinese society has had the institution of hereditary family names since the 4th century BC, but the number of these names has been reduced to some 200. Examples include Chan, Mao, and Lu. The choice of the given name was formerly much freer, but legislation seems to have restricted it. In a similar way, there are not more than 300 Korean family names, but only three of them—Kim, Pak, and Yi—belong to the great majority of families in Korea. The given name is chosen, but its choice is limited by the practice that one of the two syllables of the name should be identical within a family for a generation; the whole given name should have an auspicious meaning.

By the 20th century, the originally European pattern of given name + family name had been introduced practically everywhere. Black Africa (e.g., among the Yoruba) now has the “normal” pattern of personal names, but both the given and the family names are of vernacular stock. There are given names such as Olúṣolá “god [non-Christian] made greatness,” Òṣunbúnmi “Osun [a river] gave me,” and Adeyẹmí “crown befits me,” and family names like Ajólore “who [is] a kind doer.” Among the American Indians there are, surprisingly, practically no theophoric names. Instead, the Indians used names related to the totem, to animals indicated by omens or dreams, and to successful incidents in life. Those North American Indians who did not accept English names now use the English translation of their names as last names (which sometimes are not hereditary); e.g., John Sleeping Owl, Mary Little Bear.

Place-names

Descriptive and commemorative place-names

If the “meanings” of place-names and the motives for their choice are examined, several broad types may be discerned. Descriptive names indicate a characteristic feature of the entity; e.g., Rocky Mountains, North Sea, Newcastle. The chosen feature is sometimes only illusory or observed by chance, as in the case of the Pacific Ocean (only a small part of it was calm, or pacific, when seen and named). Honorific and commemorative names are another broad category. Examples include Constantinople (formerly called Byzantium, renamed Konstantinoupolis “city of Constantine” because that emperor made it the capital of the Roman Empire); Aphrodisias “[the town of] Aphrodite” (in Asia Minor), changed into Stauropolis “city of the cross” with the advent of Christianity; Cartagena, transferred to Colombia (South America) in commemoration of Cartagena in Spain (Cartagena in Spain was in turn developed from Latin Carthago Nova, a translation of the name given to the town by the Phoenician settlers in commemoration of Carthage, the Phoenician rival of Rome); Nieuw-Amsterdam, commemorative of the Dutch capital, changed to New York (honorific for the Duke of York). Among the numerous benedictory, wishful names are the Russian Vladivostok “govern the East!” (founded and named by Russians as their main base on the Pacific coast), Cape of Good Hope (a renaming of a more descriptive Cape of Tempests), and Greek Pontus Euxinus (now the Black Sea) “hospitable sea” (a renaming of Pontus Axeinos “inhospitable sea”). In most cases, however, place-names do not have a “meaning” at all, particularly not for the general user.

Place-names reflecting historical influences

Place-names are frequently accepted into the language of a new population. The toponymy of the United States illustrates this well. Spanish names are numerous in the South and Southwest; e.g., Florida, San Antonio, Santa Fe, and San Diego, all of which are Spanish names of Roman Catholic saints or holidays. French names occur frequently in the Southeast and the central United States (e.g., La Nouvelle Orléans, changed into New Orleans; Baton Rouge; St. Louis; Louisiana); Dutch names are found in the East (Haarlem changed into Harlem); Indian names are interspersed everywhere; and, finally, English names are superimposed over all the rest. An examination of all these names, which are now used by a mostly English-speaking population, could not fail to yield some information about the colonization of the United States, even if the history were not known.

In the same way, the place-names of Britain reflect its history. Above all, there are Celtic names—e.g., Eboracum (named for a tree), partly translated as Eoforwic, which changed into York. Roman names are also numerous; e.g., Castra “military camp,” changed into Chester, and Lindum Colonia “Colony Lindum” (which itself is Celtic, linne + dunom “town at the lake”) is now Lincoln. There are, in addition, Anglo-Saxon names (e.g., Whittingham “habitation of Hwita’s people”), Scandinavian names (e.g., Badby, in which -by is the Scandinavian element instead of English -bury “castle”), and Norman names (e.g., Richmond, from a personal name consisting of rīki “rich, powerful” + mond “world”).

Any country’s toponymy consists of various layers. In France there are Celtic names such as Lucodunos “shining town” that became Latinized into Lugdunum and changed into the modern form Lyon; Greek names such as Agathe (Tyche) “good (luck),” which has become Agde; Roman names such as Forum Julii “marketplace of Julius,” modern Fréjus; and old Germanic names such as Clarbec “clear brook” (klar + Bach in German). Most important is the fact that place-names can be used as a source of information themselves, even if other forms of evidence are lacking; for instance, because Moskva (= Moscow) is a Finnish name (Finnish kva “water”) and because other Finnish toponyms are present in Russia, the prehistoric presence of Finnish tribes in that location can be presumed. Names of rivers are particularly important for this purpose, because they are very conservative and usually are taken over by a new population. A considerable number of river names in western and central Europe show remarkable similarity (e.g., Esera in Spain, Isère in France, Yser in Belgium, Isar in Bavaria, Jizera in the Czech Republic) and are the only evidence of a pre-Celtic Indo-European population of those regions.

In a similar way, names are also indicative of cultural and political trends. Singapore (Sanskrit Siṃhapura “castle of lions”), for example, testifies to the cultural influence of India in the area. Particularly significant in this respect are deliberate changes of names caused by changes in political power, ideology, and so forth. Changes such as Nieuw-Amsterdam becoming New York, or Léopoldville (named after the king of Belgium who acquired the Congo) becoming Kinshasa, are very common. Some cases of renaming do not lack humour: La Roche-sur-Yon in France was rebuilt by Napoleon and renamed Napoléon-Vendée, which was changed to Bourbon-Vendée under the Restoration; during the 100 days of Napoleon’s return from Elba and in the subsequent second Restoration, the cycle was repeated once more, and only the Third Republic restored the old name. Renaming also shows examples of cynicism: Lyon, which had rebelled against the revolutionary covenant, was punished by systematic demolition and a massacre of its inhabitants; the ruins of the city were renamed Commune-Affranchie “Liberated Commune.” Changes of place-names are sometimes made systematically; when the territory called Alto Adige in Italian and Südtirol (South Tirol) in German became part of Italy after World War I, for instance, a systematic effort was made to give or to return to these territories the Italian character in both place-names and personal names. The Russian Revolution brought a change of names that were reminiscent of the old regime and ideology; e.g., St. Petersburg (changed into a more Slavic Petrograd by the tsar during the war) became Leningrad (and then St. Petersburg again in 1991); Tsaritsyn (from tsar “emperor”) became Stalingrad (and then Volgograd in the late 1950s); and Yekaterinodar (from Yekaterina [= Catherine], an empress) became Krasnodar (from krasny “red”). However, most of the pre-Revolution names were reinstated after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.